Notes on America. 39 



chase, to ascertain from the poor fellow himself, whether or not he is 

 willing to become your property. If he has any objection to the proposed 

 transfer, as separating him from his wife and family, or from any other 

 cause, he will probably tell some lie about his health, pretend that he is a 

 bad workman, always getting drunk, Sac. Should he perceive, that not- 

 withstanding, you advance on your bidding, he will say at once " Massa, 

 if you buy me, Massa, my gum, me be dam bad nigger, me no work a 

 bit, nutting but eat ; me be drunk ebbery day 5 an no wort ten dollars." 

 Money is absolutely thrown away in the purchase of a slave in such a 

 temper as this. He will consume twice as much as he earns. 



If, on the contrary, the bidder is considered a kind-hearted man, and the 

 slave is desirous of being purchased by him, there is scarcely a quality 

 which a valuable servant ought to possess, which poor Pompey will not 

 claim as his own. His joy,at having escaped the clutches of a hard mas- 

 ter will know no bounds, and he may be considered a " cheap lot," at a 

 large sum." 



It is not unusual for a master to commission a slave to sell himself. 

 To bring a high price in the market is the great ambition of a negro. 

 He will call upon " de good Buckra men," begging them to purchase 

 him, showing off his best points with the zeal and tact of an experienced 

 auctioneer. 



The price of a good negro varies from 400 to 1000 dollars. A mulatto 

 fellow, who was employed as a porter at an auction-room, and was consi- 

 dered trustworthy and sober, brought 1500 dollars (about 350 /.) when I 

 was in Charleston. This is the largest sum I have ever known to be paid 

 for a slave, 



It was my intention to have attempted in this paper, to give some des- 

 cription of the interior of the Southern Atlantic States the natural sce- 

 nery state of society and peculiar manners of the inhabitants. This, 

 however, must be postponed, for I have lingered in Charleston with the 

 fondness of one, whose memory is stored with a thousand recollections of 

 the place, which he only wishes it were in his power to render as delight- 

 ful to the reader as they are to himself. But, striking incidents and pe- 

 culiarities, such as tell in description, are not those which convey the most 

 pleasing impression of the country where they occurred, or the people 

 to whom they belong. I fear that this is true with respect to the sketches 

 contained in the foregoing pages, which I regret the more, as in a future 

 number, truth will compel me to present a less favourable picture of the 

 inhabitants of the interior than can or ought fairly to be drawn of the re- 

 sidents in the Atlantic cities. 



The circumstances which attended my final departure from Charleston 

 were rather singular. And I am tempted to relate them here, as, inde- 

 pendently of any interest they may possess in themselves, they afford a 

 mournful proof of the tendency of slavery to debase the human mind, 

 and produce a dogged indifference to the preservation of life itself. 



I had taken my passage for England, in a vessel that lay about four 

 miles from the city, waiting for a favourable wind. Being much hurried, 

 I was unable to proceed to her place of anchorage till late in the evening, 

 and then sailed in the boat which conveyed to her the last supply of fresh 

 water. This boat was manned by two negroes and a mulatto. I soon 

 perceived that it leaked rather alarmingly, and while the mulatto fellow 



